As American’s living through the 00’s, the Mission Mini-Comix krew are no strangers to the strange phenomenon of our constantly shrinking list of rights. Our rights to communicate without being spied upon, habeas corpus, the TSA (goodbye privacy, hello full body scanners!), freedom of speech (remember ‘free speech zones’? Or perhaps the United Nations criticizing the U.S. governments response to Occupy Protests is a little more current), indefinite detention, and the slow, inexorable expansion of the term ‘enemy combatants’ to include peaceful protesters and vocal dissenters on American policy. The hits just keep on coming.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 was just the latest piece of the puzzle. Republicans tacked on further civil liberties eroding provisions to the already draconian Patriot Act. Now the government is explicitly allowed to hold prisoners indefinitely, without trial (but not by the military, but only if the government doesn’t want them too… Thanks, Obama /s ). Sure, they were doing that before anyway under interpretation of previous law, but at least they didn’t have the law on their side when they did it. The Obama administration initially threatened to veto this law, but rolled over when the bill was passed, perhaps scared about being called weak on defense and punitive towards veterans if they were to veto the Defense budget.

So, with nobody with the guts to stand up to the gutting of our civil liberties, we trundle on, with less rights, less privacy and less freedoms, sipping our peppermint mochachinnos and ogling over the next Apple product as the water heats up from a simmer to a slow boil. It’s just enough to make you want to draw a comic about it, isn’t it?

Edit: Actually, I was just reading that Federal Judge, Katherine B. Forrest has filed a nationwide injunction against the indefinite detention for U.S. citizens language contained in the NDAA bill (although the Obama administration seems determined to appeal). It’s good to know there actually are some people in power still willing to stand up for our rights and our laws. Shame on the Obama administration for fighting her on this.

This comic was written by Antonio, who also drew the 1st and 8th pages, Mike drew the 2nd and 3rd pages, Justin drew the 4th page, “W.A. Silver” drew the 5th page, “Kate Silver” drew the 6th page, and I drew the 7th.

Also, we love Futurama. Please don’t sue us. This is political satire!